Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalPrimary Prep Elementary School on Tuers Avenue in Jersey City which was vandalized overnight.Security video at Primary Prep Elementary School in Jersey City shows a tall masked man breaking into the school through a library window at 11:30 last night, Principal Maureen Hoffman said this morning just after detectives left the building trashed by vandals overnight.

According to Hoffman, two masks were found inside the school, meaning a second person may also have been involved in tearing through the Tuers Avenue building and attempting to steal pipes, pots and pans.

The vandal or vandals entered through the parking lot behind the school, pried a grate off a window, then smashed the window to get into the library, Hoffman said.

Inside, some classrooms were ransacked and windows continued to be smashed in an attempt to get at faucets, other plumbing, pots and pans, she said.

Everything that was ripped out -- plus a bag of hot dog buns -- was brought to the front of the building in a large garbage can, where the vandal or vandals apparently realized there was a locked gate and they couldn't get everything out, so they left it all there. It is not yet known if anything was taken.

A half-eaten frozen hot dog and an open bottle of orange juice were found and detectives are hoping to recover DNA that could be helpful in the investigation, Hoffman said.

School was in session yesterday and is back in session today, although students who normally meet in the wrecked classrooms are meeting in the auditorium. The students haven't yet been told of the crime but will learn of it through an announcement at lunchtime, Hoffman said.

The school, at Tuers Avenue and Mercer Street just off McGinley Square, has 250 students enrolled from preschool through eighth grade.